A solo exhibion of ADEEL UZ ZAFAR

MONOMANIA (mn-mn-, -mny) A paral insanity in which psychoc thinking is conned to one subject or group of subjects. An excessive interest in or enthusiasm for a single thing, idea, or the like; obsession.

Hybrid Companions 04 Foreword

Andrew Shea

Director/Curator, Aicon Gallery, New York

The term monomania can be dened as “an excessive interest or enthusiasm for a single thing or idea; conicng bit of informaon thrown at them into some kind of cohesive recognizable form. But once they’ve obsession.” In this sense, the term relates to the work of Adeel uz Zafar both in terms of his consistently recurring given birth to these new heavenly bodies, they are monstrous, mutated, wounded, or trapped, and all the other subject maer (children’s toys eerily wrapped in gauze or bandages) and his now-signature reducve technique lights in the universe have gone out. of scraping away at a black latex surface line by line to give rise to seemingly three-dimensional gures. This Zafar’s creaons now sit alone, although most seem unaware of this due to the bandages covering their eyes. technique, central to Zafar’s pracce, allows him to build up intricately textured forms through a simple acon However, the postures of many of these gures seem clearly ready and excited for interacon. In Antagonist 1 of mark-making repeated thousands of mes. The resulng gures, whatever deeper meaning they may hold, / Dragon, the creature stands with its bandaged sts in the air, like a boxer ready to face an opponent who will immediately strike the viewer as the product of obsession. never enter the ring, while Antagonist 2 / Demon crouches, ready to pounce into a melee that is not to be. Oen mes, individuals who nd themselves xated on a single subject, be it a concept, a thing, or a person, are Meanwhile on the side of the ‘good guys’, Protagonist 1 / Mickey oats hopefully through his empty universe, capable of creang vastly intricate systems of symbolism and mythology around it that are only jusable unto arms perpetually outstretched for a hug he’ll never give or receive. It is a desperate and lonely world we’re themselves. Imagine entering the hermec apartment of a chronically obsessed celebrity-stalker and what one peering into, reecve of the all too increasingly common feeling of isolaon many of us can sense, even as we might nd inside. In a similar way, through his obsessions both in terms of theme and technique, Zafar is building connue to be informed that the world is becoming ever more connected. Indeed, even when Adeel’s characters a world. It is a world populated with good guys and bad guys, characters both familiar and alien, and a host of occasionally manage to get a peek through their bandages at the world around them, they likely wish they mutated creatures exisng somewhere in between. And slowly but surely these monomaniacal tendencies are hadn’t. There is a sort of existenal horror expressed in the single giant staring eye of Antagonist 3 / Monster, giving rise to a universe with deeply complex implications for both its inhabitants and their viewers. while Protagonist 2 / Kong seems quite posively on the verge of tears upon geng a glimpse of the empness that surrounds him. Others, including the arst himself, have hinted at this same conclusion; that a kind of cosmos is being created as each new work is brought into the world. But even a cosmos must have an origin. Or at least most believe it At the end of such a reading, these driing creatures seem to have been created to either perpetually ponder must. In this sense, Zafar’s ‘scratch and reveal’ technique, stumbled upon while working with photographic the purpose of their existence in a world they cannot clearly see or understand, or be cursed with the sight and paper and limited tools in the isolated regions of Northern Pakistan, can be taken as a ‘big bang’ in terms of knowledge of the true void in which they exist. Born out of an obsession with a revelatory yet single arsc method and medium; the sudden opening of a new gateway to creaon. However, the substance and subjects technique, the once familiar inhabitants of Zafar’s strange and lonely universe are ulmately le with nothing of Zafar’s new world would be the products not of the spectacular chaos following the astronomical Big Bang, to contemplate or understand outside of themselves. They have become the trapped subjects of their own but rather the product of a slow, meditave, obsessive persistence to create life. Ironically, neither path seems monomania. to have resulted in its respecve universe fully making sense or imparng meaning to its inhabitants more readily than the other. Both worlds have frequently ended up populated with desperate individuals who oen nd themselves psychologically, historically, or, in the case of Zafar’s characters, literally adri.

Zafar’s subjects, usually modeled on familiar childhood toys and popular characters, oat through their lonely universe. They seem completely oblivious to one another due either to the bandages covering their eyes or the black voids in which they nd themselves. Thus, although these characters evidently exist in the same mythological pantheon of our collecve memories, they appear doomed to never meet one another; to never enact the dramac bales, alliances and tragedies for which they’ve been created. Not only do the conicts between the perceived good actors and bad actors in this world go perpetually unresolved, they are never even given a true chance at understanding each other or themselves. Here Zafar’s world seems a heightened metaphor for our now global ideological, cultural, and sociopolical conicts and the potenal consequences of giving in to the pessimism it can somemes breed.

A further pictorial and conceptual analogy can be drawn between Zafar’s pracce and our own cosmos if one steps back and seeks an explanaon of these bizarre creatures by viewing them for a moment as constellaon- like. In doing so, one can quickly realize that the stargazers we might envision discerning such manic and mutated forms in the night sky are not capable of stopping aer imagining a simple outline of a familiar living creature, as our ancestors have since anquity. Instead, we can imagine them possessed by a need to connect every other discernable point of light contained within that outline, through thousands upon thousands of interwoven lines. These constellaons are the obsessive compulsive products of individuals enmeshed in both increasingly fragmented and increasingly globalized sociees, francally aempng to understand their inner and outer worlds by connecng every dot they come across; by desperately trying to force every complex and 06 09

Protagonist 1 / Mickey 36 x 30 Inches / 91.44 x 76.2 cm 2015 08

Protagonist 2 / Kong 36 x 30 Inches / 91.44 x 76.2 cm 2015 10

Antagonist 1 / Dragon 49 x 60 Inches / 124.46 x 152.4 cm 2015 12 16

Antagonist/Demon

Gemma Sharpe

Appraisals of Adeel Uz Zafar’s work generally draw parallels to miniature painng in Pakistan and its precise procedural quality, or to the pain of the country, perpetually wrapped in metaphorical and literal bandages alike to those that wrap Zafar’s mischievous forms. Other readings aend to Zafar’s early-career pracce as an illustrator, or to the global ubiquity of his referents (cartoon characters and toys). However, his work’s obvious parallel with Pop Art (along with the fact that he shares an early career trajectory with a number of Pop arsts), have been less discussed, though assessments and reassessments of Pop Art are very much on the horizon as I write these words, with two ‘Global Pop’ exhibions on display at the Tate Modern in London and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis expanding its canon beyond the usual suspects.

Perhaps an understanding of Zafar’s work aer the legacy of Pop has seemed too obvious to be undertaken. Or perhaps Pop Art is too far past, held back to the 1960s and the high (or low) point of the American Century, American exceponalism and its capitalist roar. Pop seemed to oer so much, and so clearly. As Susan Sontag put it in her 1966 essay ‘Against Interpretaon’, Pop Art used a content so blatant and “what it is” that in the end it becomes uninterpretable, with nothing to interpret. Pop Art has been openly and tacitly denigrated for this character, far more than its historical partner in Minimalism, which was similarly against interpretaon, albeit through a decit of content rather than Pop Art’s excess of it.

Yet Pop was a slippery movement, (or series of movements). Its darker corners were quickly buried and easily absorbed by its bright, slick, trivial and occasionally chauvinist forms, and to think of Pop Art as merely Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenberg and the New York cohort represents a narrow cut of its canon, as recent exhibions – more or less successfully – have tried to argue. If we expand that canon to include its internaonal peers – from Britain and France to Brazil and Japan – the ‘movement’ begins to surpass comic strips, beef burgers, and Marylyn portraits. And just as arsts outside North America frequently used the Pop aesthec to subvert American icons and commercial excesses, so too were the arsts that we associate with its inner ‘core’. To take two examples: Lichtenstein was deploying the comic book format thirty years aer its Golden Age, and Warhol’s famous Marilyn prints were begun in response to Monroe’s unmely death. Nostalgia, belatedness, crique and even mortality are values that we oen forget to see in even the most iconic moments of Pop.

To concentrate on one piece among Zafar’s recent works, a similar play between clarity and withdrawal can be found. The work ‘Antagonist/Demon’, for example, shows us a much-enlarged toy gure, wrapped in bandages. He (we are assuming he is a he) is at once a tormentor and the tormented. He makes for a sad, but also an absurd image. Executed with Adeel uz Zafar’s parcular economy of means, this lile demon sums up the mulple forms of withdrawal that operate in his pracce and that he partly shares with Pop: all of the work’s values slip away from us as we ask them to help us respond. The bandages imply injury, decrepitude, and shadows of tragedy, for example. But Zafar’s characters remain very much alive and energec, occasionally even humorous. Zafar’s gray-scale palate is supremely simple, but it therefore oers us no emove clues: neither the passion of red, nor the sun of yellow, or the ferlity of green. And while Zafar’s formidably arduous technique is so evident, on examinaon it has a surgical imperviousness: line upon line upon line, executed meditavely and diligently, but without visible senment. Finally, in looking for a clear ‘meaning’ for the work, we might hope to make the image into an allegory of the arst’s home: a young country that is already baered into a kind of elderly disrepair, and yet (for beer or worse) sll baring its teeth and up for a ght. But the popular nature of the toy and the universality of the bandage entails that this gure is too Antagonist 2 / Demon ubiquitous to be rmly ‘about’ Pakistan. 60 x 60 Inches / 152.4 x 152.4 cm 2013 14

Thus, in looking at this lile demon we are oered only paral clues as to his ‘meaning’, prevenng us from aaching him to a parcular place, emoon, or event. Here we see the slipperiness of Pop Art and its legacy: an apparent ease of content and yet a deance of interpretaon. These withdrawals and refusals are a strategy, maintaining the fact that there is no easy exit, and no grand opus or message that we can bundle up in our minds and walk away with. Unlike much Pop Art, however, which slls and silences its subjects – from Marilyn, to cartoon characters and beef burgers, which remain quietly in their moment – there is an animism to Zafar’s lile demon, which brings him a poignancy rarely seen in Pop. Slippery though he might be to the eye that wants to interpret him and to pin him down to a parcular meaning, he is not silent and he is not sll. In fact, he seems to be alive. And this lile demon is trying – he really is trying – to cast a threatening look, a terrible snarl, a terrifying stance. But his problem is that his eyes are covered and his mouth is wrapped closed. His arms and feet are rendered s and inexible. We can see his eort, but it is thwarted.

And hidden under its wrappings, his lile body seems juvenile and unready for grown-up games, ghts, and torments. He is young, and he is old. He cannot see, and he has seen too much.

Gemma Sharpe is a writer, occasional curator and PhD candidate in Art History at the Graduate Center, CUNY, New York. Antagonist 3 / Monster Previously she has worked for Aerall, Gasworks, and the Triangle Network in London. She has an MFA in Art Wring from Goldsmiths, University of London and has published arcles, catalogue essays and reviews internaonally. Between 2011 and 2014 she was based in Karachi, Pakistan, where she taught in the Liberal Arts Department at the Indus Valley School of Art and 98 x 60 Inches / 248.92 x 152.4 cm Architecture and worked as a Coordinator at Vasl Arsts’ Collecve. 2015 16 HYBRID COMPANIONS

Aasim Akhtar

Mankind has been trying to dominate the animal kingdom for millennia and this ongoing endeavour has eventually It is in the pseudo-realism presented by the filmic language Disney produced between 1948 and 1960 that the threat resulted in ‘the perfect pet’. A pet that can be adjusted to the wishes and desires of its owner. A pet that will be the presented by anthropomorphic frameworks can be discussed. The new genre, at least in principle, presupposed a level perfect accessory in daily social life. The object, one that many have found too disturbing, combines the tradition of the of veracity in the portrayal of facts it presented. Today’s audiences are aware that through filmic syntax and editing reversible fashion item with the playful convenience typical of the old fashioned doubleface stuffed animal toy which al- everything can be recontextualised in a steep departure from the originally filmed footage. In the light of what we have lows children to play with two toys in one. In Greek mythology, the chimerical combination of human and animal is also seen, however, it is worth considering that the representation of truth may constitute an oxymoron. Even though there a persistent presence: the Minotaur, the Gorgon and the Sphinx are only a few among many examples. The transforma- are elements of truth, at least of factual evidence, involved in representation, these too are entangled in the flux of tion of humans into animals, most notably by Zeus in order to fulfill his lustful desires, have become a staple of classical narrative structures, framing and cropping, which automatically affect the nature of these elements. From this perspec- mischievousness. The history of human-animal relationships can indeed be read as a quest for control over the strange, tive, Walt Disney’s ‘documentaries’ removed the credible premise and turned the genre into an anthropomorphic tale in the exotic and the unknown, a phenomenon that historically resurfaces in different forms and media through the spec- which narrations and scene-staging drastically reinvent the lives of animals. Reactions to the films suggested that nature tacle of game hunting, the performative ritual of the corrida, the assembling of dioramas in natural history museums, did not really appear on its own terms. Instead it was a kind of cultural canvas upon which Disney and the American au- and the opening of zoos through the appropriations of imperialist Europe. dience painted an array of concerns and values. In other words, the genre shifted from a framework in which the animal Drawing animals would then constitute a tool towards the understanding of them. But what other reason brought man appears as object of human action (and in which the animal is targeted as game), to an anthropomorphic framework, in to paint animals? Assumptions are all we can draw, and it is difficult to admit that there is something rather dramatic which human characteristics are mapped onto animal subjects, to a zoomorphic framework, in which knowledge about about the amnesia that erased from our minds the original relational mode we entertained with animals. It has been animals is used to explain the human species. We look at animals to learn about them, but we also look through ani- claimed that cave paintings may have served a divinatory role, whereby the drawing of animals would have resulted mals for ourselves. in fruitful hunting. Others have claimed that the images were instead part of shamanic rituals, in which the animals A roll of cotton gauze or bandage, an archetypal material recurring obsessively in Zafar’s work, one linked to person- painted do not refer to animals in flesh and bone but to spirit-animals, mediating and reconciling human experiences in al experience of trauma, allows the artist to conceal the animal body, transforming it into an unidentified mass. This nature. performance continuously shifts between the contingent and the purely symbolic. Through its multi-layered historical Anthropomorphism is an innate way of establishing an engagement with the animal. In modern times, and especially in and psychoanalytical contextual trail, the animal becomes an unstable being, a creature of mediation. Its presence is popular culture, the attribution of distinctively human attributes to animals not only serves as a strategy that facilitates extremely tangled in a historical and cultural signifying web – it is anything but free. Ultimately, these significations are the selling of animal bodies as cultural objects, but is seemingly an inescapable behavioural reflex that we all fall into at reinforced by the title of the piece, whereMonster , for instance, anchors the presence of the stuffed toy animal to an some one point or another. effective metaphorical embodiment of post-colonial times, more than to a fellow animal defined by its own animality. Adeel uz Zafar’s art project captures the ambiguities of anthropomorphism through the creation of unsettling imagery The piece offers readings charged with political provocation and historical referentialism that threaten to overshadow in which animal bodies are altered. Here, the stuffed toys carefully and snugly wrapped in a gauze bandage comment the value of the metaphysical encounter between human and animal. on the objectification of animals and the inescapable drowning of these in the capitalist system that simultaneously kills The concept of pain has historically functioned as one of the main discriminatory tools employed, through its articu- them and sells off their bodies. The elephant, the panda, the polar bear, the guerilla, the rabbit, they all belong to the lation of difference and similitude between animals and humans. What effectively is pain? How do we measure other cliché of the ‘animals to save’; the animals containing an anthropomorphic other, or in the understanding of Deleuze beings’ pain? How do we know if other animals feel pain, and whether their pain is comparable to our own? In ‘The and Guattari, the ‘Oedipal animals’, those which invite us to regress, draw us into a narcissistic contemplation and are Animal that therefore I am’, Derrida asks ‘Can they suffer?’ and, reaching for a plausible answer, he explains, ‘No one the only kind of animals psychoanalysis understands. can deny the suffering, fear or panic, the terror or fright that can seize certain animals and that we humans can witness’. In Zafar’s ‘drawings’, anthropomorphism has been channeled through different mutational paths. The most visible is a Are all the others forever destined to a world of passive cultural existence? morphological alteration of the animal body in order to incorporate some human-like qualities. These newly formed human-animal hybrids are omnipresent in children’s entertainment. Hanna- Barbera have since the 1940s created a multitude of much-loved, hybrid animal characters: Tom and Jerry, Top Cat and Yogi Bear, to name a few. Warner Broth- ers animated cartoon series also produced some memorable characters, like Bugs Bunny and Road Runner. A large part of the characterisation of these animals depends on the balance between the animal’s stereotypical representation of idiosyncrasies and the careful overlaying of human behavioural traits. In the light of the fact that anthropomorphism shapes our relational approaches to animals from an early age, we may Aasim Akhtar is an independent artist, art critica and curator. His writing is published in magazines, catalogues, and books both nationally and internationally, then assume that as such it plays a defining role in our adult encounters with animals too. Does it essentially perpetrate and his art work has been widely exhibited, more recently at Whitechapel Gallery, London, as part of a commemorative show entitled, Where Three Dreams a romanticized, distortive and emotionally driven one-directional mode? It can indeed function as a form of control Cross: 150 Years of Photography in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (2010). He was a curator-in-residence at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan in 2002. over the animal, as animality is attenuated through an imposed similarity with humans. In this representational mode, He is the author of two published books, Regards Croises (Alliance Francaise, Islamabad, 1996) and The Distant Steppe (Alliance Francaise, Islamabad, 1997), and has just finished writing his third, Dialogues with Threads: Traditions of Embroidery in Hazara. He teaches Art Appreciation and Studio Practice at The we are the central entity, the one animals emulate. Animals therefore become mirrors for humans, flattened reflective National College of Arts, Rawalpindi surfaces onto which we project our impulses, vices and virtues. 18

Drawing Appendage 1 Engraved drawing on plastic vinyl 98 x 120 Inches / 248.92 x 387.1 cm (diptych) 2015 20

Drawing Appendage 2 Engraved drawing on plastic vinyl 60 x 60 Inches / 152.4 x 152.4 cm 2015 22

Drawing Appendage 3 Engraved drawing on plastic vinyl 48 x 120 Inches / 121.92 x 304.8 cm (diptych) 2015 24

Abdullah M.I. Syed: Can you please explain your exhibion tle Monomania? It’s an interesng tle An interview with Adeel-uz-Zafar given that this body of work evokes such a strong sense of mulplicity and perhaps even polysemy, both in its images, making and conceptual framework.

(2015) Adeel-uz-Zafar: Well, that is a tricky queson to begin the conversaon. Monomania is dened as a paral insanity or xaon upon one subject or group of subjects. Somehow I feel that this idea is evident Abdullah M. I. Syed in this body of work. This xaon, for me, is a two-way creave process between the arst and the viewer; both gradually lose contact with their own individual reality, xang on one line or one thought, twisng and turning and intersecng other lines and thoughts. Of course, in this process, the mind encounters mulplicity both in front of and behind every image. However, for me, there is always a In 1998, aer graduang from the Naonal College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, Pakistan, Adeel-uz-Zafar strong monomaniacal imperave, whether it is a use of a single colour such as black or a constant worked as an illustrator, special eects and 3D modeling arst. A decade later in 2009, he exhibited repeon of the lines of bandages, which are so orderly and meaningful. Such interests and obsessions ‘The Lion At Rest’, a large scale engraved drawing on plasc vinyl for the exhibion Size Does Maer at converge on a single idea of perfecon, which I consider to be the driving force of my monomaniacal VM Art gallery, Karachi. With this work, he achieved immediate notoriety and recognion as a brilliant art pracce. drasman and subsequently became one of the most sought-aer arsts in Pakistan. In recent years, Zafar has been exploring other mediums including sculpture, sound and installaon. These new modes AMIS: You are notorious for resisng ‘rapid healing’ or ‘transformaon’ of the characters within your of working are not, however, abbreviaons or pauses in his work but a connuity in his pracce, which works, or shall I say, removing the gauze bandages to unveil your subjects’ true forms. Rather, in your hovers between drawing and painting. decade long art pracce, you have chosen to adopt subtle changes and have not been pressured to quickly evolve or outgrow your obsession with the engraved line and your use of bandaged plush toys. This interview with Zafar is an outcome of our many conversaons and my observaons of his art In this exhibion, you bring the viewer’s gaze to an extreme close-up, unusual angles and vantage pracce since we rst met back in 2010. As part of my ongoing research on Pakistani art and arsts, the points. In some cases, you almost obscure the view of your subject to a point of absurdity. In this way, details of this ve year exchange are many, and it is dicult for me to recall each and every meeng are you suggesng a future direcon toward abstracon? Will we ever see your unwrapped monstrous and conversaon. However, key occasions include our trip to Dubai in 2012 for a group exhibion at creaons or will abstracon hide them forever? Lawrie Shabibi and his visit to Sydney, Australia for the Parramaa Arsts Studios and Cicada Press residency in 2013. In Sydney, Zafar shared my studio, which gave me the opportunity to see the full AZ: There are many possibilies. I could move forward endlessly with my monomaniacal plans. With development of his work ‘Drawing Appendages’, a series of etchings made for my curatorial project my skills and obsessive traits, I believe that I could achieve something special. I nd myself in a group Semblance of Order (2013-2015). Conversaons also took place in his Karachi studio between 2014 and of contemporary arsts which belongs to the me honoured tradion of art-making: a slow simmering 2015 and nally in my Karachi studio in October 2015. of ideas, perfecng of cra, a connuous growth and pushing of creave limits. I am enjoying this phase of my career and I feel that only me and history will decide the fanacal indulgence of my content. Adeel-uz-Zafar is an arst exquisitely passionate about his pracce and about art history and Pop culture. He has a parcular moral bent toward bringing Pakistani art to a broader internaonal AMIS: It seems that achieving perfecon is one the main driving force in your work. This is also audience. When speaking of his own pracce, he addressed numerous misconcepons, such as ideas recognised by arts writers such as Nasa Rizvi and Sue Acret who refer to your pracce as ‘art without about concept and image making. In this interview I have focused upon such subjects. I hope this brings margin for error’. I believe this reading to be simplisc and with a nality that somewhat contradicts to light new insights into Zafar’s art pracce, his aspiraons, anxiees and growth as an arst and a your working methodology. You masterfully hide mistakes but never obliterate them and they are thinker. visible upon close inspecon. What do errors mean to you in your quest for perfecon or perhaps a semblance of it?

AZ: No maer how careful you are, some comments do come back and confront you, so it seems. The absolute assessment that my work is awless or that I work without any room for error is problemac. I nd such nality uninteresng. Unfortunately, such ideas stem from comments I made some years ago when I proudly explained that the process of line engraving on a painted vinyl surface is irreversible and that drawn lines cannot be erased, redrawn or painted over. The truth is, there are ways to mask or correct aws, for example, the drawing of addional lines, cross hatching or in some cases modicaon of the shape of the drawn area itself. When viewed closely, such added details are visible yet cloaked by an overwhelming experience of the maze of lines that one has to get past to actually see them. My process is not perfect and there is room for playful mistakes. This playful masking or mulplicaon is an organic process, both in terms of technical mastery and conceptual rigor, which I think stems from my quest for a semblance of perfecon.

AMIS: So in a sense, you know how to create an entrapment for your audience?

AZ: [Laughs] I cannot say that I do, but perhaps my works do. I think this entrapment is an interesng point and my work illustrates this through obsessively engraved bandages. A bandage is associated with many ideas such as healing, regeneraon and transformaon, but the overall drawn eect is of its wrapped form. Upon close inspecon, my drawn bandages are more like nets, traps for beauty. This trap fascinates the viewer, drawing them in closer to inspect the details and the making of the work.

26

And coming back to your earlier queson, I think that through this entrapment, the viewer potenally not only dismisses errors but also forgets to recognise where a line ends and where a form begins.

AMIS: Is fuelling the audience’s fascinaon with your extraordinary command over technique a deliberate act on your behalf?

AZ: To an extent, yes. I see my art making process and the viewer’s interacon with it as intertwined in a playful yet complex process, almost performave.

AIMS. Coming back to your technique of engraved lines, this is classic appropriaon from other masters’ work. For example, there is a similarity between your work and that of gures like renowned Indian arst Rameshwar Broota and a few others. One can disnguish your rened technique from Broota, but such comparisons remain persistent. How do you claim your technique as your own and unique?

AZ: The technique that I have developed and that I am connually mastering is an age-old engraving technique. My rst encounter with engraving was through Albrecht Dürer, the German Renaissance arst. He was a great engraver and I nd his work inspiraonal. The appropriaon of this technique is no dierent than using perspecve, chiaroscuro or even the sihya qalam (black pen) or gud–rang (opaque watercolour) drawing and painng techniques of miniature painng. My exploraon of engraving techniques with materials such as vinyl, which is a very dicult material to work with, requires extensive research and pracce to master. I am now moving on to other materials as well. I feel that my recent exposure to etching has brought me closer to Dürer’s techniques and has brought further renement to my skills. It is not purely the technique but also an exploraon of new tools, materials and subjects appropriate to a contemporary context that sets an arst apart.

AMIS: How do you see scribing and engraving as an act?

AZ: Catharc and meditave and never violent. To me, the engraving process is more of a ritual performance, in which the reparave act pays homage to the Islamic art of calligraphic mashq. This is a mark making pracce of duplicaon and imitaon, carried out in order to perfect skills and to understand the imaginave potenal of each mark.

AMIS: Out of the three - context, audience and culture - which maers to you the most?

AZ: In the beginning of my career, all three to some extent but never explicitly one more than the other. Now, I feel that this burden has been lied to some degree, however I do give consideraon to context and cultural sensibilies such as Pakistan and Middle East, but not to an extent where such consideraons hinder my creavity. And due to my labour intensive and me consuming process, it is dicult for me to make works for a specic show under a ght deadline and even harder to predict an audience. I rarely know in advance where a certain work will be shown or who its audience will be. For example, the body of work I am exhibing at Aicon gallery began two years ago when New York was not on my radar for a solo exhibion. Once the exhibion was locked in, ongoing discussions with the curator prompted me to make some adjustments, yielding new ideas and potenal new works. For this show, even the tle, aptly suggested by the curator Andrew Shea, came out of such a discussion. On the whole, when I am in my studio, I am my own tough cric and my own audience.

AMIS: This show is your rst solo in New York. Do you feel that your identy as a Muslim Pakistani male arst will be scrunized under various noons of identy polics? And in this way, do you think your identy will be marginalized, potenally ltering into your conceptual matrix?

AZ: There is a certain charm and fascinaon about having a solo show in New York. Ironically, New York is the only locaon at this point in my exhibing inerary that does not have Colonial baggage aached to it, although its Imperial history and harbouring of post 9/11 anxiees and wounds of the war on terror pose challenges for Muslim idenes. If one chose to apply such perspecves, which I nd liming and unfortunate, then the bandages in my work would take on a certain poec duality – a sign of mutability, a protest, but also a strong physical symbol of the mending of wounds. I grew up in Pakistan during the dark era of General Zia-ul-Haq’s dictatorship when Colonial and Imperial histories

28

preceding page

Mutation 1 Engraved drawing on plastic vinyl 36 x 30 Inches / 91.44 x 76.2 cm (each) 2015

right

Mutation 2 Engraved drawing on plastic vinyl 36 x 30 Inches / 91.44 x 76.2 cm (each) 2015

30

were plastered over by the Islamization of Pakistan. Such overlapping histories have had a strong experience of working and living in Sydney, your rst visit to a western city. Can you elaborate on this inuence on my generaon of arsts. further and do your recent large-scale ‘Appendages’ works in Monomania provide evidence of this change? AMIS: Do you think that Pakistan’s toxic polical system overexposed your characters, transforming them into mutants? AZ: Yes, I can see the works in Monomania as a result of an outcome of my residency in Sydney, Australia and its subsequent exhibion Semblance of Order. The residency experience, working at AZ: That is a novel idea that needs further invesgaon. Today, I do recognise the discrepancy between Cicada Press and my visits to many museums and studios of other arsts in Sydney, added diversity to what I was told growing up in Pakistan and what I have since learned and discovered. I feel that I am my conceptual discourse and visual vocabulary, and new dimensions to the formal language of my art unable to escape and fully recover from the toxic eects of that era. I think my characters are a making (techniques and materials). It was the rst me that I had a chance to live, experience, engage reecon of my own mutaon. Let’s leave it at that. with and analyze the western side of the world. During my stay in Parramaa City, a part of Sydney that is densely populated with Middle Eastern people and many dierent Asian communies, including AMIS: There is a general percepon that your so animals are damaged or injured, that you are a South East Asians, Chinese, Indians and Pakistanis, I began to noce signs and symbols that suggest saviour and that they are recovering, which is clearly symbolized through your use of bandages. eorts to curtail the racial divide and bring about reconciliaon between various ethnic and religious However, I wonder if this is cleverly masking your true desire to play God? Are you playing God here? groups in Australia. I also became aware of a polical movement or cultural shi that came about aer Are you creang these monsters, heroes and villains? Australia’s apology to Indigenous people in 2008, aempng to bring Australia together and heal its Colonial wounds, but simultaneously seeming to create new ssures and ruptures. This gave me the AZ: [Smile] Let’s say I am giving life beyond life. idea of using the appendages in the works I was making, as these bandage-wrapped characters are not only a paradox of subjecvity in art and aesthecs across cultural borders, but also suggest social, AMIS: Oh, so you are playing the role of the architect, similar to Victor Frankenstein? religious and polical paradoxes. How they are read, diers specically between the East and the West. AZ: Frankenstein’s characters are alive, they have the ability to move and interact. Mine are The engraving process further enhances the concept of appendages, repeon and reproducon. I see mummied, more in a state of suspension. the work in Monomania as a result of this analysis, lled with aesthec delight, anxiety and fear of the unknown. AMIS: I ask again, any plans to bring them out from their mummied suspension soon?

AZ: [Pause] I see this as a historical mummicaon and only the progression of art history has the power to bring them back and to unveil them in their appropriate melines.

AMIS: Another myth surrounding your mummied characters (or monsters) is that they are drawn from mythical creatures of light and purity and harmless. I nd this fascinang as the gures are empowered by their black background, the darkness surrounds them. Please clarify the nature of your monsters? I suspect the reading and the narraves of your creaons are not as black and white as they seem.

AZ: I believe that everything in this world is based on polaries: light and dark, truth and lies, pure and impure and so on. Mythical narraves are no dierent, their reading also oscillates between such polaries. I believe it is impossible to erase the darkness, it provides the evidence or absence of light itself. My characters are bright and cheerful, bringing pleasure, but my narrave is conal, hidden and perhaps somewhat dark in nature. You will never know for sure what conal story is behind each character. It requires the audience’s imaginaon and speculaon to unfold. It is like looking into a mirror and nding yourself on the other side – dark or light it is all hidden in that gaze. A child’s gaze may reect their fear of the unknown and as such they tend to think of these characters as injured or in pain, whereas an adult’s experience swings between pain and pure pleasure.

AMIS: Is there a commentary on capitalism in your work?

AZ: Yes, there is a strong underlying crique of the globalizaon and Americanizaon of local sociees, which manifests itself in a various forms such as TV, lm, adversing and most importantly the fast- food industry. I have a parcular interest in Neo-Pop culture, a culture that is now everywhere and one that every person experiences it in a similar way. I nd America's most enduring capitalist symbols, such as Mickey Mouse and Coca-Cola, to be mascots of this culture and key players on the global stage of Western capitalism. Today, from Pakistan to China and beyond, Western capitalism has been embraced like a monomania. On one hand it captures the imaginaon of young minds, while on the other hand it is eroding local cultural values and erasing cultural icons and identy.

Abdullah M. I. Syed is an arst, designer, curator and scholar working between Sydney, Karachi and New York. Syed holds a PhD AMIS: Despite your deep interest in creang large-scale work, your ‘Drawing Appendages’ etchings in Art, Design and Media from USNW, Sydney, Australia. Syed has curated many exhibions in Pakistan and internaonally for series, made for the exhibion Semblance of Order (which travelled to Aicon gallery, New York in 2014), which he has contributed catalogue essays, notably: the survey of drawings of Australian arst Michael Kempson (2010), consists of smaller scale works. The series shows a glimpse of the next step in your conceptual and Remarking | Remaking: The Australian Drawing Connecons (2012) and most recently Drawn to From: The Maer in Hand (2015). technical evoluon. You menoned that this change was a result of your engagement with and Syed has also contributed text to Print Australia. His honors and awards include the Blacktown Art Prize, Australia (2010), the UNSW Postgraduate Research Scholarship (2009) and the IAO Installaon Award, USA (2003).

32

1975-1980 1980's 1990's 2000's 2010-2015

Iran-Iraq War World Wide Web invented September 11th aacks & War on Terror declared European economies challenged Stock market crash of 1987 Gulf War Afghan War & Iraq War End of Vietnam War Arab Spring & uprising World Polics & Fall of the Berlin Wall Dissoluon of the Soviet Union Mumbai aacks Global Events Soviet–Afghan War begins Occupy movement inspires worldwide protests End of Soviet- Afghan War Bosnian War Great Recession Iranian Revoluon Osama Bin Laden assassinated End of Cold War era The Taliban government takes control of The War on Terror escalates Afghanistan

Growth of digital art, such as Giclee Prints. Charles Saatchi created a new ideology and had General expansion of computer art a considerable impact on the fortunes of World Art The Age of Postmodernist Art Postmodernism invigorated individual arsts A coming of age for Contemporary Indian Art Emergence of regional Biennales

Contemporary Art explodes with a spotlight on A new globalized scenario of art fairs and Art in Asia Pacic escalates Chinese Contemporary Art Biennales thrives

Benazir Bhuo returns to Pakistan Gen. Pervez Musharraf returns the naon to Maral Law and later won a vote of condence in President General Zia promulgates the Senate, Naonal Assembly, and provincial Floods in Pakistan Shariat Ordinance making Sharia assemblies General Zia-ul-Haq imposes Maral Law. supreme law of the land A spate of consecuve dismissals of democrac Democrac government complete a full term in Pakistani Polics & Polical pares dissolved, press governments in Pakistan Government of Pakistan launches country-wide parliament - a rst for Pakistan Events censorship imposed General Zia-ul-Haq is killed in a plane crackdown against extremist elements. Post 9-11 crash near Bahawalpur Fourth Indo-Pakistani War Military forces launched successful counter-insurgency Assassinaon of Benazir Bhuo operaons in modern age Benazir Bhuo becomes rst woman Prime Minister of Pakistan Democracy restored

The post- Zia years foster a new complexity of form & content in the work of younger arsts Contemporary Art from Pakistan culvates The arrival of internet and new media provides internaonal following. Works shown in major Art fairs -Miniature moNveoment evolves and receives inspiraon and new perspecve and Biennales including dOCUMENTA (13) internaonal aenon Zahoor ul Ahklaq introduces Commercial art galleries mushroom Major Euro- American museums start collecng Pakistani Art Modern Art inuences & dominates Postmodernism & transion from Art schools and colleges established Pakistani Art Pakistani Art Modern to Contemporary begins Diaspora arsts invigorated Younger arsts show their presence in the High prole internaonal prizes and awards won by the internaonal arena due to globalizaon Naonal Art Gallery is inaugurated in Islamabad Contemporary Pakistani arsts 2007

On the brink: Group Show 2010 at FOST Gallery, Singapore

R.M Studio Residency: 2010 at Lahore

The Rising Tide – New direcons in Art from Pakistan: 2010 work was selected in a major group exhibion at Mohaa Palace, Karachi showcased a decade of a new wave of Pakistani arsts

Protagonist – First internaonal solo show at FOST Gallery, Singapore: 2013 features 17 works Enrolls at the Naonal College of Arts in Lahore, Gained considerable experience of working with as a student of Fine Art the reputable publishing houses in Pakistan Stranger Than Ficon – First solo show in Pakistan at Gandhara-Art, Karachi: 2014 features a selecon of Adeel uz Zafar Graduates with disncon 1998 Joined Karachi Grammar School 2004 & Indus seminal anthropomorphic characters known around the Born 1975 Valley School of Art 2008 as an Art instructor world for their incredible feats and heroic acons Return to Karachi and begins teaching at Karachi School of Art Size Does Maer: Group Show 2009 is a career Semblance of Order – A Travelling show: 2014 The turning point. Introduces the engraving with works have marked a new direcon where characters Marked his early idencaon as an illustrator bandages on Vinyl have started transforming them into creatures with appendages

The Eye Sll Seeks – Pakistani Contemporary Art: 2015 edited by Salima Hashmi and published by Penguin Books India, aims to bring together a wide selecon of work produced over the course of the last 20 years by Contemporary art praconers from Pakistan

All together the arst has parcipated in 31 group exhibions and 4 solo shows to date

34

BIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adeel Uz Zafar was born in Karachi, Pakistan in 1975, where he lives and works. Adeel received a BFA Catalogues from Naonal College of Arts, Lahore in 1998. Akhtar, Aasim. ‘Introducon’, Being/Becoming, p.2, Khaas Gallery, Islamabad, 2015 Rizvi, Naisa. ‘Playful, Alarming, Cosmic, Dimiutive. All of Adeel uz Zafar’, Stranger than iction, p.24,

Gandhara-Art, Karachi, 2014 Solo Exhibions Acret, Susan. ‘What lies beneath’, Stranger than iction, p.32, Gandhara-Art, Karachi, 2014

Shah, Zarmeene. ‘Adeel uz Zafar: In conversation with Zarmeene Shah’, p.76, Gandhara-Art, Karachi, 2014 2015 Monomania, Aicon Gallery, New York, United States Rizvi, Nasa. ‘Heroes, Villains & Humans, Protagonists, FOST Gallery- Gillman Barracks, Singapore 2013 2015 Being / Becoming, Khaas Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan Khan, Sumbul. ‘Between Strife & Mirth’, Stop Play Pause Repeat, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai 2012 2014 Stranger than Ficon, Gandhara-Art, Karachi, Pakistan Akhtar, Aasim. ‘The Rising Tide - New direcons in Art from Pakistan 1990 -2010’, p.167, The Mohaa Palace 2013 Protagonists, Fost Gallery – Gillman Barracks, Singapore Museum, Karachi, 2010

Akhtar, Aasim. ‘Encore’, R.M Studio Residency Exhibion, p.3, Ejaz Gallery, Lahore, 2010 Selected Group Exhibions / Projects Hussain, Marjorie. ‘What does it mean to be a man in modern society’, p.2, Art Chowk- The Gallery, Karachi, 2009

Rizvi, Nasa. ‘The Show “Size Does Maer’ – is not so much about scale as much as another essenal element of 2014 Semblance of Order, Koel Gallery, Karachi art pracce – Drawing”, p.7, Size Does Maer, VM Gallery, Karachi 2013 Semblance of Order, Parramaa Arsts Studios, Sydney

2013 Are you in Character? Gandhara-Art, Karachi Magazines / Journals 2012 Stop Play Pause Repeat, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai

2012 Let’s not talk about Polics, Gandhara-Art, Karachi Imran, Aniqa. ‘Caricatures of life’, Herald [Pakistan], p. 173-174, December 2014 2012 Leers to Taseer II, The Drawing Room, Lahore, Pakistan Faruqi, Sama. ‘Zap! Pow! Bang!’, Newsline [Pakistan], p.104, December 2014 2011 Two Person Show- Adeel uz Zafar & Ayaz Jokhio, Canvas Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan Shah, Zarmeene. ‘Are you in character?’, Art Review –Asia [Internaonal], November 2013 2010 The Rising Tide- New direcons in Art from Pakistan 1990 -2010, The Mohaa Palace Museum, Karachi, Tauqeer, Komal. ‘Pushing Boundaries –Adeel uz Zafar’, Nukta Art [Pakistan], Vol 1 Thirty One, p.38-45, Pakistan November, 2013 2010 The Drawing Room at Slick Paris, The Palais de Tokyo and the Musée d’Art moderne de la Villa de Paris, ‘In Deance & Solidarity’, Newsweek [Pakistan], p.50, March 16 2012 Paris, France Nabi, Zehra. ‘Collecve Introspecve’, Newsline [Pakistan], p.94, March 2012 2010 On the Brink, Fost Gallery, Singapore (4 person show) Ansari, Saira. ‘Something Old, Something New’, The Herald [Pakistan], p.101, May, 2010 2010 RM Studio Residency Internaonal Show, Ejaz Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan (group exhibion) Akhtar, Aasim. ‘Celebrang the Dri’, Libas Internaonal, p.306-312, 2010 2010 One Square Mile, Arts Council, Karachi, Pakistan (group exhibion) Rizvi, Nasa. ‘Art with a purpose’, Herald [Pakistan], p.82, February, 2010 2009 Being a Man in Pakistan, Art Chowk- The Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (group exhibion) Harianawala, Hawra. ‘Size Does Maer’, MAG Magazine [Pakistan], p.16, November, 2009 2009 Size Does Maer, VM Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (group exhibion) 2009 Redo Pakistan, Other Asias (in collaboraon with Shanaakht Fesval), Arts Council, Karachi, Pakistan Newspapers 1998 Degree Show, Naonal College of Arts, Zahoor ul Ikhlaq Gallery, Pakistan (group exhibion) Subzwari, Shanzay. Art, ‘Ordered Chaos’, Sunday Magazine-The Express Tribune [Pakistan], 21 September, 2014 Booth/Art Fair Ali, Salwat. Art end, ‘Dening Semblance’, Sunday Magazine- DAWN [Pakistan], 21 September, 2014 Ali, Salwat. Foreign Palee, ‘For your eyes only’, Gallery- DAWN [Pakistan], p.9, 5 January, 2014 2014 Gandhara-art at Art / Basel Hong Kong (15-18 May), Booth 1D07 Husain, Marjorie. ‘Of pares & other monsters’, Gallery, DAWN [Pakistan], p.9 22 September, 2013 2013 Gandhara-art at Art / Basel Hong Kong (23-26 May), Booth 1D07 Ali, Salwat. ‘The rock star of illustraon’, Interview - Gallery- DAWN [Pakistan], p.11, 27 December, 2012 nd 2012 2 Kathmandu Internaonal Art Fesval (KIAF), ‘Earth/Body/Mind’ (25 November -21 December) Lord, Christopher. ‘Emerging arsts from Pakistan showcased at Lawrie Shabibi in Dubai’, The Naonal, Arts- 2012 VIP Art Fair Culture [UAE], p.8, 9, 24 September 2012 2012 Lawrie Shabibi at PULSE New York, Booth B6 Kalsi, Jayo. ‘Endless cycle of turmoil’, Weekend review –Gulf news [UAE], 11 October 2012 Ali, Salwat. ‘Foreign Palee: Going places’, Gallery, DAWN [Pakistan], p.11 06 May, 2012 Rizvi, Nasa. ‘I like to challenge myself’, The News - Prole [Pakistan], p.32, 26 June 2011 Residency Programmes Ali, Salwat. ‘Reviving the Old Bond’, Arst’s work, DAWN [Pakistan], p.8, 27 February, 2011 Anwar, Husna. ‘While one arst waits for the dust to sele, the other scratches out an existence’, The Express 2015 Gandhara-art at Art / Basel Hong Kong (15-17 March), Booth 1D29 Tribune Karachi [Pakistan], p.15, 18 February, 2011 2015 FOST Gallery at Art Stage Singapore (22-25 January), Booth B7 Shey, Deepika. ‘Floored by Pakistani Arsts’, The Straits Times [Singapore], p. E10, 4 June, 2010 2014 Creave Fusion Internaonal Arsts Residency, Cleveland Foundaon, Cleveland, Ohio, USA Subrahmanian, Madhvi. ‘Art In troubled mes’, The Business Times [Singapore], p.30, 4 June, 2010 2013 Parramaa Arsts studios, in collaboraon with Cicada Press (COFA, UNSW), Sydney, Australia Mirza, Quddus. Encore, ‘Metaphoric Connecons’, The News [Pakistan], p.32, 11 April, 2010 2010 RM Studio Residency Internaonal, Lahore, Pakistan Salman, Peerzada. ‘Ecological Concerns through Art Expressed’, Local, DAWN [Pakistan], 25 January, 2010 Mirza, Quddus. Encore, ‘Seize the Size’, The News [Pakistan], p.32, 16 August, 2009 Ali, Salwat. ‘Contemporary Drawing’, Artmart, DAWN [Pakistan], p.11 16 August, 2009 Teaching Online Videos 2004-present Karachi Grammar School, Karachi 2008-2011 Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture, Karachi Creave Fusion Internaonal Arsts Residency 1998-2006 Karachi School of Art, Karachi hps://www.dropbox.com/s/a406xqujwni0ql1/Adeel%20MASTER1.mov hps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZImBdswGy4&hd=1

Semblance of order hp://vimeo.com/105625897

Published on the occasion of the exhibion MONOMANIA

A solo exhibion of ADEEL UZ ZAFAR at Aicon Gallery, 35 Great Jones Street, New York December 10, 2015 – January 23, 2016 www.aicongallery.com www.adeeluzzafar.com

Curated by Andrew Shea Publicaon Manager: Aasim Akhtar Photo credits: Jamal Ashiqain Design: Muhhammad Hamza Siddiqui & Adeel uz Zafar Producon and Prinng: TOPICAL Printers www.topicalprinters.com

©2015 Aicon Gallery © Text with the authors © Images with the arst

Printed in Lahore, Pakistan ISBN: 978-0-692-55308-4 First published 2015 Edion of 500

Aicon Gallery’s curatorial vision begins in South Asia but reaches outwards internaonally from there. The New York gallery provides a vital plaorm for Modern and Contemporary South Asian arsts to exhibit in the United States. Alongside in – depth, focused solo shows, the gallery presents a program of curated group exhibions that are internaonal in their scope and ambion. In short, Aicon Gallery aims to bring new and challenging art from South Asia to the widest possible internaonal audience.

Adeel uz Zafar and Aicon Gallery wish to thank

Aasim Akhtar Abdullah M. I. Syed Amy Distler Babar Gul Gemma Sharpe Noman Siddiqui Syed Kashif Ahmed

And all those who made this exhibion possible.

All rights reserved. No part of this publicaon may be reproduced copied or transmied in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photography without prior permission in wring from arst, contributors and publishers.